EVENTS

The Promise Of Spring (Yeah… Promises, Promises)

The trees are not budding
The grass is still brown
The remnants of snowbanks
Lay all around town
The flowers aren’t blooming
Except one or two
But there, in the distance,
A brief flash of blue?

There’s rain in the forecast
And that’ll bring mud
Some seasons are lovely
But this one’s a dud
It’s this way for ages,
A very strange thing,
But one—just one—bluebird,
And, suddenly… Spring!

Yeah, it’s pretty gray in Cuttletown. The green in the background is from evergreens, not new leaves. But this morning (it rained last night) it was as if the birds had all arrived at once. Songs I haven’t heard in months, old familiar friends back from points south.

The winter birds, with the exception of the jays and the cardinals, have been studies in black, white, and grey. Even the goldfinch was wearing winter colors, and barely recognizable. So when I saw this bluebird, I had to check to be sure it wasn’t a trick of the light and yet another junco. But no! Actual eastern bluebird! So Spring is here!

Which I’ll keep telling myself for a few more weeks until the leaves and flowers start arriving.

Consider yourself lucky. We are looking for 6 inches of snow today here in Denver with overnight lows in the single digits. We can’t reliably plant tomatoes until May 15 (and in 1975 got 6 inches of snow on Memorial Day weekend). We don’t have Spring here, just alternating warm and cold spells until Summer.
It is really hard on spring bulbs. I got tired of having all of my tulips knocked flat by late snows, so I ordered some Emperor tulips with short, heavy stems. It was a mixed success: the stems didn’t bend, but all of the petals fell off from snow load.

I heard it from a Western Meadowlark that spring was here. Unfortunately, here in Colorado it is a blizzard right now and it has warmed all the way up to 15 F. so much for the daffodil almost blooming by the deck.